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(Reprinted from Investigations of the Department of Psychology and Edu- 
cation of the University of Colorado, Vol. 3., No. 2.) 



RELATION OF THE COURSE OF STUDY TO 
HIGHER WAGES'. 



By John Burton Phillips. 

Honorable William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, has written: "In the earliest stage of civilization ninety-nine laborers 
out of each hundred are needed to supply raw material and rude manufac- 
tures for the community. With the growth of civilization a larger and larger 
number are detailed from the one hundred to provide creature comforts, pro- 
tection and culture, and the teachers vocation in the United States at present 
by far leads in numbers the other vocations that have to do with providing 
culture for the community. These vocations are limited in their quotas only 
by the ability of the community to furnish a surplus of money beyond what 
is needed for the raw materials and the rude manufactures for food, clothing 
and shelter. In the future time a goal will be reached when one person in 
each hundred by means of machinery will furnish all the food, clothing and 
shelter needed for the other ninety-nine, and everyone of these ninety-nine 
will find ample employment in the higher occupations which provide means 
for creature comfort, protection and culture (2)" 

What means shall we employ to reach this goal? In the struggle to 
attain it, ought we not to give some attention to the subjects taught in 
the schools? If machines are to take the place of men in producing things 
to satisfy material needs, it will be necessary to train men to make and use 
machinery. 

Progress in civilization depends upon an increase in the production 
of those commodities that satisfy human wants. To satisfy more wants each 
individual must secure more commodities. To live better and have more com- 
forts, our people must be able to buy more with their wages and salaries. 
Wages and salaries are paid from the product the workers are able to turn 
out, and they are therefore limited by the amount of wealth produced. High- 
er wages therefore require an increased production. Accordingly, the prob- 
lem of progress is a problem of increasing production. Each worker must 
continually turn out a larger product. To expect the American laborer to 

1. Reprinted from Education, Vol. XXVI, No. 8, (April, 1906) by per- 
mission of the editors. 

2. William T. Harris in School and Home Education. 

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work harder or longer hours is out of the question, as the limit of human 
strength has alrfeady been reached; many of our laborers are now working 
beyond this limit, and injury to their health and to that of those depenedent 
upon them is the inevitable result. The only way to increase production is 
by a constant increase in the invention and use of labor-saving machinery. 
When machinery is used, production is limited only by the forces of nature 
instead of human strength as is the case with workers without machines. 

Modern civilization is thus very largely the outgrowth of machinery. 
Increase in the invention and use of labor-saving machinery ts therefore es- 
sential to progress. What effect should these facts have on those whose 
duty it is to arrange the course of study? 

It at once occurs to every thoughtful person that the studies taught 
in the schools should be such as will lead the students to familiarize them- 
selves with the social and industrial effects of machine industry and its re- 
lation to modern progress. Industrial history should be one of the leading 
studies in all schools. Children in the lower grades should be taught the 
stories of great inventions, and the industrial effects of these inventions 
should be thoroughly impressed on their minds. 

Of the various movements contributing to produce modern civiliza- 
tion, none was more important than the industrial revolution. Yet, multitudes 
of our teachers have never heard of this. The contributions of inventors and 
labor-saving machinery to our civilization have always been largely overlook- 
ed by educators. Education has done little to encourage invention. Here 
is a table showing the amount of schooling enjoyed by the men whose in- 
ventions have contributed most to the welfare of the world: 



Inventor 


Invention 


Date 


Education 


Franklin 


Lightening rod 


1752 


No education * 


Hargreaves 


Spinning jenny 


1764 


Illiterate 


■ Arkwright 


Spinning frame 


1769 


No education 


Watt 


Steam engine 


1769 


Rudimentary common 
school 


Crompton 


Spinning mule 


1779 


No education 


Cartwright 


Power loom 


1785 


Oxford graduate 


Fitch 


Steam navigation 


1787 


Rudimentary common 
school 


Whitney 


Cotton gin 


1793 


Yale graduate 


Evans 


Steam navigation 


1804 


No education 


Fulton 


Steam navigation 


1807 


No education 


Davy 


Safety lamp 


1815 


Rudimentary common 
school 


Stephenson 


Locomotive 


1821 


No education 


McCormick 


Reaper 


1834 


No education 


Morse 


Telegraph 


1843 


Yale graduate 


Goodyear 


Vulcanized rubber 


1843 


No education 


Howe 


Sewing machine 


1845 


Rudimentary common 
school 


Singer 


Sewing machine 


1850 


No education 


Bessemer 


Steel manufacture 


1856 


Rudimentary common 
school 


Ericsson 


Monitor 


18861 


No education 


Bell 


Telephone 


1876 


Edinburgh graduate 


Edison 


Electric light 


1880 


No education 



* The words, "No education" as used in this table mean absence of 
school or college opportunities. 

61 



Gift. 



From this table it appears that the great inventors have been men to 
whom public education has been very largely denied. The inspiration for 
their service to humanity did not come save in very few instances from the 
schoolroom. Why should so important a subject as the application of the 
forces of nature to what is now performed by human Iskbor, be neglected in 
educational institutions? 

There does not appear to be any good reason why a course in inven- 
tion should not be offered in the higher institutions of learning. A course in 
which students would be made to realize the industrial needs that can be 
supplied by new inventions, might easily be given. One great reason why 
more inventions are not made is due to the fact that students are not trained 
to recognize economic waste. Why were improvements in harvesters so 
slow in coming? No attempt was made t6 invent harvesting machinery by 
anyone but the farmers. The invention of spinning machinery was left to 
spinners. The needle and thread were used for centuries but nobody tried to 
invent a sewing machine till 1844. Literature was taught in the schools, 
but no attention was given to pointing out great industrial needs. More lab- 
or-saving inventions would have been made years earlier had education point- 
ed out to our young men the need of machinery in industry. 

Since progress has been greatly limited by the absence of industrial in- 
struction, is it not time that this error be corrected by so adjusting the cur- 
riculum that those trained in the schools will be prepared to see and remedy 
industrial defects by the invention of machinery? If the time desired by 
Commissioner Harris shall ever come when one man with machines will 
provide the material comforts for ninety-nine other men, and these ninety- 
nine be left free to devote themselves to art, literature and other cultural stu- 
dies, that time will not be hastened by a course of study which provides for 
teaching art and literature in the schools to the neglect of industrial sub- 
jects. On the contrary, such a time will be hastened just in proportion as 
the importance of machinery in our civilization and the necessity of further 
labor-saving inventions, are brought home to our people by means of educa- 
tion. Higher wages being dependent upon increased production and increas- 
ed production depending upon a greater use of machiery, it would seem to 
be the plain duty of educators to so modify the course of study that students 
may be able to understand thoroughly the industrial system and remedy its 
defects by new inventions. In this way the production of wealth would be 
increased and the resulting higher wages would give to our people a greater 
command over the comforts and pleasures of life. 



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